


You're The One I want To Go Through Time With

by pinkevilbob



Series: Time in a Bottle [2]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Domestic Fluff, F/M, widojest is not in the background in this one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-06
Updated: 2019-12-06
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:54:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21692608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinkevilbob/pseuds/pinkevilbob
Summary: Going back through time asks for some big sacrifices. The biggest being Jester's faith. But what if it can come back to her.
Relationships: Jester Lavorre & The Traveler, Jester Lavorre/Caleb Widogast
Series: Time in a Bottle [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1563736
Comments: 12
Kudos: 77





	You're The One I want To Go Through Time With

**Author's Note:**

> So I had this sequel to Time in a Bottle planned for a while, but it took me a while to get to writing it and then a while to edit it. I hope that people enjoy it.
> 
> You will need to read the first one for this to make sense.

The past was strange. Jester expected it to be super weird and old, but for the most part it felt the same. The air smelled like air and the grass looked like grass. It was almost disappointing.

“What did you expect to see?” Caleb asked.

Jester shrugged. “I don’t know, like everything sepia toned maybe? Like in old pictures.”

Caleb chuckled. “Well, as you can see, color existed even before you were born.”

“I get what you’re saying, though,” Beau said. “For how old people go on and on about how things used to be better back in the old days, I thought there’d be more to it.”

Cad sniffed at the air. “It’s the same as I remember it.”

“Thirty years can make some ecological differences, especially in cities,” Yeza said, “but there doesn’t seem to be enough of a change here to be perceived in this area.”

“Are we certain that we’re in the past?” Fjord asked.

Veth adjusted Luc on her hip. “Of course we’re in the past. Caleb just did the spell.”

“It’s possible that I made a mistake while casting it,” Caleb said rubbing his arms.

“Oh!” Jester jumped up. “I’ll just ask the Traveler if we’re in the past.” She tilted her head up. “Hey Traveler! Are we-” She froze. Instead of the Traveler’s presence, Jester felt nothing. Absolutely nothing. “Traveler? Traveler?!” Her voice cracked as terror filled her. Tears flowed down her cheeks as she collapsed down to her knees.

Cad put a hand on Jester’s shoulder. “What’s the matter?”

“The, the Traveler,” Jester said through heavy tears, “he’s gone.”

“What?” Caleb said.

Jester couldn’t see for the tears. “I can’t feel him! He’s gone!”

“You said that you didn’t meet the Traveler for 15 years and you were one of his first followers,” Beau said. “Maybe he doesn’t exist yet. We are 31 years back.”

Jester cried even harder.

Cad picked her up in a hug and just let her cry in his arms. “I know this hurts,” he rumbled softly. “I can’t imagine how much this hurts, but you still have us.”

“I, I don’t know what I am without him,” Jester sobbed.

“You are Jester, and our friend,” Yasha said softly.

Caleb put a hand on Jester’s arm. “Ja, and you can still punch any one of us through the wall.”

“And you’re half of the greatest detective duo there ever was,” Veth said.

Jester giggled waterily.

“We got your back, Jes,” Beau said.

“Thanks,” Jester said weakly. She put on her best smile. “Thanks guys!” Jester love them all she really did, but part of her was hollow without the Traveler.

* * *

Years went by and eventually Jester no longer thought of it as being the past. It was now just the present. And what she once considered the present was now the past. Things got confusing very fast if she dwelt on it too much.

Life was quiet without the Traveler, but it wasn’t lonely. Well, if Jester was being honest it was lonely at first. It was bone achingly lonely and sometimes she couldn’t take it, but then Caleb asked for her help in Rexxentrum and she moved in with him. At first as friends, then as something a little different(it wasn’t less or more just merely different), and then as husband and wife. After that, Jester could hardly notice the loneliness with the constant flow of students stopping by for tutoring sessions and then little Molly came. It was a busy life and a good one for Jester Lavorre-Widogast.

But she would still notice the spot in her heart where the traveler was missing. It never went away and it never shrunk, but it would hurt less sometimes. Jester would still pray to the Traveler not expecting an answer. Though for the first few years, she kept waiting for the surprise of his voice whispering in her ear, and it never came. And it hurt, but it never stopped her drawing in journal after journal after journal for the Traveler. In a way though, it became drawing for herself, then Caleb, and then little Molly.

“Hey Traveler,” Jester would whisper as she painted the sunset with inks. “Have you ever seen a pretty sight?”

“Nein,” Caleb said kissing his wife on the neck.

Jester swatted him away. “I wasn’t asking you,” she giggled.

“Well, I really haven’t seen a prettier sight than you,” Caleb replied.

Jester swiped at his nose with her paint brush. “You say that everytime.”

“That’s because it’s true.” Caleb pecked a little kiss on her nose. “You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen and will ever seen, and you just keep getting more and more beautiful.”

“Well, then you just become more handsome every night,” Jester said.

Pressing a kiss into the back of her hand, Caleb tugged her towards their bed. “Come along then.”

Jester twisted out of his grip and kissed his hand back. “I’ll be just a moment. I just need to put some things away.”

“Alright,” Caleb said. “Do you need any help?”

Jester shook her head. He was sweet to offer, but Caleb always put her paints away in the wrong spots. “No, I’m fine.”

“Okay then,” He said turning down the sheets.

A smile crept over her face as she watched her husband. Jester still couldn’t believe her luck on how good her life could be. “Oh Traveler, I wish you could see this.”

“I’m seeing this,” a young lilting voice said, “but who am I looking at?”

Jester spun around to see the Traveler sitting on her desk. But he wasn’t as he had last seen him, a full grown man or rather god, instead he was a child just like the first time she had ever met him. “Traveler!” She jumped back in surprise.

“That is what my followers call me,” he said from beneath his oversized robe. “Or at least they will when I get more of them.”

“Is something the matter?” Caleb asked.

Jester turned towards him. “Can’t you see him?”

Caleb shook his head. “Who should I be seeing?”

“Only my followers can see me. Those lucky few I’ve chosen,” the Traveler said jumping down from the desk. “And you. I haven’t chosen you, but you feel like like mine.”

Tears welled up in Jester’s eyes. “That’s because you have chosen me once. In a different time.”

The Traveler tilted his hood. “You do have the drippings of magic and time on you.”

“Is it the Traveler?” Caleb asked. “He’s returned to you?” He put a hand on Jester shoulder and looked around.

Jester nodded. “He’s right here.”

“I am, but he’s not going to see me. Who is he? And you?”

“I’m Jester,” she said curtsying. “Your faithful follower. And this is my husband Caleb. Oh and our baby Molly’s in the next room. Well, they’re not really a baby anymore. Next month Molly’s turning three.”

Caleb sighed. “And about time. I’m more than ready to say goodbye to the terrible twos.” He stepped forward next to Jester and then bowed. “I am the humble follower of your follower and will serve her as pleases.”

The Traveler looked over at Caleb. “He’s a tricky one with words. I like that. You have good taste.”

“Do you want waffles?” Jester asked.

“Oh, I like you. You may be my first follower,” the Traveler said. “And my first teaching to you will be the best pranks to pull with syrup..”

It was like old times.

* * *

  
His first follower was a strange one. Part of him was convinced that he already knew her, knew her with all his heart, but he could not remember her. Also, the Traveler was certain that she should be younger, much younger, but he was not going to complain. Jester had the greatest spark of mischief that the Traveler had ever seen and it was a pleasure to watch her pranks flower and grow.

Her husband was a different story. Not that the Traveler hated him. Caleb had a mischief of his own though it was much quieter. He caused all sorts of trouble at that academy he went to, and from the sounds of it, he had upset plenty of confident brats in his time. But there was something about his eyes. How he'd search for the Traveler and almost find him when the mortal shouldn't. Or perhaps it was how he looked at Jester like she was all his, when really she belonged to the Traveler.

“Tell me, how did you spark mayhem this day?” the Traveler asked appearing on the counter behind Jester.

She spun around with a smile, her smile just for him. “Traveler! I baked secret dicks into all the cupcakes today.”

He grinned, but he couldn’t help the hollow feeling building in him. “A very good start, but perhaps we can do something more.”

“More?” Jester leaned forward with a grin. “What do you have in mind?”

“The school in the fanciest part of the city. It could use some decorating,” the Traveler suggested.

Jester giggled. “Oh I love it! We’ll do a mural of you in the main courtyard! I just got new paints and Caleb can help!”

The Traveler’s grin faded. “We don’t need him. And I was thinking of something a bit sneakier and, hmm, personal. Like the Assembly’s offices.”

Jester stared at him. “That would be awfully sneaky.”

“And they could all use getting knocked down a peg or two.”

Jester leveled a look at him. “Including Caleb?”

“Especially him. He doesn’t appreciate you,” the small god said. “We need to put some sense into him.”

“”He doesn’t appreciate me?” Jester asked.

The Traveler nodded. “He doesn’t. Not like I do.”

Jester sighed and looked a little sad. The Traveler had never seen her like that before. “It doesn’t work that way.”

“What?” The Traveler bristled. “It works anyway I want it to.”

“Nope. You don’t get to decide who loves me and how much they do,” Jester said.

The Traveler pouted. “I’m your god. That should count for something.”

“It does, but that doesn’t mean you get to punish Caleb because you’re jealous.”

“I’m not jealous.” The Traveler folded his arms with a scowl. “Why would I be jealous?”

Jester smiled at him knowingly and went to the cookie jar. “Because you’re a little boy who doesn’t know how to share yet.” She pulled out two cookies and offered one to him.

The Traveler took it grudgingly. “I’m a powerful god, not a little boy.” He bit into his cookie. Snickerdoodle, his favorite. “Can I have milk?”

“Of course.” Jester poured two glasses of milk. “How many more followers do you have?”

“Three, but that’s only because finding new followers is hard work,” the Traveler said.

Jester nodded handing him a glass of milk. “That’s true, but maybe you’d like to spend more time with your new followers”

The Traveler shook his head. “They’re not my favorite, you are. So you should be all mine.”

“I already told you, it doesn’t work that way,” Jester said. “I used to want to keep you all to myself once too, but I had to share too.”

“When?” The Traveler asked. He devoted most of his time to Jester.

Jester looked out the window with a distant look on her face. “A long time ago, before we met.”

“That doesn’t make sense. You should make sense,” the Traveler pouted. But it did make a little sense. Jester had the heavy smell of time and magic to her though not as strong as on her husband.

“When I was a little girl, I was all alone and very quiet and you came to play with me.” Jester smiled. “You taught me magic and tricks and how to cause all sorts of mischief. And then I grew up and spread your word. Sometimes it was in happy places and other times it was sad. But you were always there for me. But then I got to the end of my travels and we, that’s me, you, and my friends, realized that if we wanted to fix things, then we’d have to go to the past to fix them. You were the one that shielded us for those would would stop such things, but I left you behind.” A heavy sorrow covered her face.

The Traveler nodded without thinking. “I knew you before in a different time. I knew you were familiar. I’ve always known you.”

“That’s right,” Jester said.

“I don’t like sharing you,” the Traveler said.

Jester giggled. “And I don’t like sharing you either, but here we are. You are going to get hundreds and hundreds of followers, so many you won’t know what to do with them.”

“You’re still my favorite. You’ll always be.” The Traveler hugged her. “So you should be mine.”

“I am, but I’m also Caleb’s and Molly’s.” Jester patted his head.

The Traveler frowned up at her. “Can we at least prank Caleb?”

A sly, mischievous grin crept over Jester’s face. “Oh, of course we’re pranking Caleb.”

* * *

Caleb sighed as he left the classroom. He enjoyed teaching and sharing magic with the upcoming generations, but some days he wanted to scream with exhaustion(and sometimes he did). All he wanted to do was go home, read to Molly, and maybe snuggle with his wife, but first he needed to go to his office and take care of some paperwork.

The sounds of giggling and snickering filled the halls and grew louder as he got closer to his office. A gaggle of students stood in front of his office laughing. “I don’t suppose any of you will explain what’s so funny here, will you?” Caleb asked. As one, the students all gasped and scattered. “I thought as much.”

With a sigh, Caleb came to his office door and stopped. It was painted up in all sorts of brights colors with cheerful looking dicks all over it. Caleb didn’t need to guess twice to know who did it. He loved having a creative wife, but he would be the first to admit the drawbacks of having one.


End file.
